Recipe: Octopus and Couscous (aka Octo-cous)

A fascinating taste of Tunisian cooking that exemplifies the uniqueness and deliciousness of the country's traditional cuisine. Baby fava beans, chickpeas, and sliced up octopus are long cooked in a light tomato sauce, with the couscous cooked in at the end.

This has been one of my favorite meals of late, a fascinating taste of Tunisian cooking that exemplifies the uniqueness and deliciousness of the country's traditional cuisine. Baby fava beans, chickpeas, and sliced up octopus are long cooked in a light tomato sauce, with the couscous cooked in at the end. If you start with cooked beans and cooked chickpeas--I confess to using canned more often than not for convenience--it's about an hour of cook time, most of which is unattended so you can do whatever other inspiring things you want while the stuff is simmering on the stove top.

The texture you're looking for in the finished dish is that of thick stew, so I'll let you judge, but starting with a handful (half cup) of couscous will be fine. To put the picture into your mind's cooking eye, it's more a tomato-based bean and octopus stew with couscous, and not--as I'd have imagined from reading the name alone--a bowl of lightly fluffed couscous with bits of octopus in it.

Bring water, tomato puree, tomato paste, olive oil, harissa, and garlic all to a boil. Add the cooked chickpeas and the octopus, bring back to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for about an hour (or as Onsa Mahjoub did when she taught me the dish, you can cut the time by about half if you do it in a pressure cooker).

Add the baby fava beans and ground caraway. Stir, bring back to a boil, and then add couscous. Stir well, turn off the heat, cover and let rest 7 or so minutes. The couscous will cook in the broth. You can adjust the seasoning with more or less tomato, garlic, caraway or harissa, and of course, salt to taste. Ladle into warm bowls to serve. I like to add more olive oil--I've been using the Mahjoub's own oil of course--atop each bowl (to taste) when I serve.

To order some of the Mahjoub harissa, click here. For the Mahjoub couscous, click here.

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